Robert vs. December

Chris' Baptism

Heewohnahtahmo!!!

I think for my homecoming talk I will say a prayer in Tewa.  A simple short one but there are literally about 50 people or a lot less in the entire world  that can actually speak the Tewa language so that should be fun.  I am trying to memorize it starting today.  Yes we had the first baptism in Polacca in almost 2 years!!!  It was a pretty awesome experience and there were about 40 people that came so that was amazing.  One thing that I remember with an interview with President Batt is that he said the reason why this mission is so much more difficult to baptize and retain members is because the Native Americans are to be "grafted in" by the Gentiles (us Bahana or white men) basically.  He whipped out Jacob chapter 5 and talked all about it how we are to be their guide and have to put them on our shoulders a lot because Satan has such a strong hold on them its ridiculous.  He went off on how he had attempted to graft some trees when he was back in Idaho Falls and how hard it was but it can be done!  I feel like Polacca is looking on the upside for awhile but we will see about a few weeks into December.  December for the Hopi is a month called "Goouyama" or something like that, they have no written language so whatever.  Anyways Let me tell you just a few of the things that Hopis aren't allowed to do during December...No singing, dancing, drums, loud noises of any kind, no blunt force trauma against the earth so that means no basketball or really any type of sports or activity, no ground breaking, no opening doors after it gets dark, no knocking on anything, no whistling, no loud laughter, and no being outside once the sun goes down...to name a few.  So for lessons we are going to have to call the people and then drive to their house then call again for them to let us in.  Even a lot of the members participate in this because its still part of their culture.  The reason why is December is when all the evil spirits come out.  Thats why its so cold.  Past family members or friends that are spirits now will try to get you to come to their side...(nice way of saying kill you) because they miss you and once it gets dark they become active mostly. People believing in this stuff only gives it more power so hopefully nothing to weird happens, but I'm used to dealing with ancient spirit ritual stuff already so bring it on!!  

Anyways on the better side of things, we confirmed Chris yesterday and he said that he didn't want to get out of the chair and he had a great experience.  I personally don't really want to leave his side because he has such a strong spirit with him.  He's already achieved and understands more about the Holy Ghost then I could ever understand.  Plus!  We went to a lesson with him about an hour after church.  We threw him right into the fire and we didn't tell him to say anything and he just jumped right in and was sharing his experience and feelings on things right and left.  He also grew up with the Hopi tradition so he knows all about that and he related everything we were talking about to the tradition and it made sense to everyone.  After we got in the truck he said "so thats what that feels like!...Next house lets go!"  Then we took him tracting with us and since everyone knows each other here he took us to a couple if his buddies houses and he knocked on the door and everything and actually got us a handful of potential investigators!  This guy is awesome.  His biggest motivation is he wants to be a good example to his son who is about 9 months old.  We also had a primary program for church and Chris said that he was just thinking about how he wants this for his son.  You guys gotta meet him.  He wants to write you a letter thanking you for the scriptures.  Good guy.  How many missionaries can say they took a brand new spanking member to a lesson and tracting though right after church, pretty cool. 

We also knocked into a Korean guy named Kim.  He is an assistant preacher or something and he doesn't speak good english at all.  I asked him in very slow english "what brought you to america?"  he looked at me all confused then I just said bluntly.." why are you here?????"  apparently he was offered a job at the baptist church here after he went to religious school in Korea...so there ya go!  We are going to try and get a Korean Book of Mormon and go back. Nice guy, we'll see what happens and I akskd Tyler to give me some Korean phrases and greetings so maybe I can break the ice a bit by trying his language.  Whoda thunked that you would find a Korean in a town of less then 500 people in the middle of a Hopi Indian reservation.

   Well for Thanksgiving this week we will be at a couple houses so we are taken care of.  Also we had snow! it was awesome!  I was so happy! it must have been Idaho snow though because this morning its basically all melted away.  Thats all she wrote folks!  Have a happy turkey week!  GO BRONCOS!!!

Singadee! 

Love Elder Christensen 

Robert vs. The Funeral

 I am really thinking about buying one of those ponchos.

After the funeral banquet

Brother Naha and the scouts.  We played basketball.

2 puppies that I found outside my door, so we fed them some cupcakes.

Chris was not baptized this week.  His date was moved to the 23rd of this week at 4pm.  There was a big funeral scheduled on the same day so Chris out of respect for the family decided to change the date.  Respectable move on his part so I have no problem with that.  Maybe you heard of the funeral, it actually went worldwide.  There is a family here that are members of the church but are kinda less active.  The Youvella family and we actually had a lesson with them about 3 weeks ago.  There is a boy named Charles Youvella that was 16 and he was the star running back for the football team.  Great kid.  He was what seemed like the  most popular kid in school and everyone loved him.  The Hopi football team went to state for the first time in a long time.  When we heard that they were going then we both knew they were gonna get pummeled because they are so small compared to the white and black kids.  Well unfortunately we were right, they lost 60-6 to Arizona lutheran in the first round playoff game.  Charles played a really good game but during one tackle he hit his head really hard on the ground but he got up and ended up scoring their only touchdown the next few plays.  He then collapsed at the sidelines and was taken to the hospital where he died last Monday.  Weird that I just saw and gave him a bro hug about 2 weeks ago.  There was over 1500 people here at our church in little Polacca, Arizona for the funeral on Friday.  The entire community was pretty impacted.  We helped out with the funeral services and such, it was a sad day for everyone.  So we are going through that with all of the people here.  Its also Hopi tradition that wherever a dead body has been you don't go to that place for 4 days so there was a significant decrease at church yesterday but its understandable.  I think we will try and visit the Youvella family soon  to see how they are doing.  

Yes the package is here, and I will pick it up today but I wont give it to Chris until he is baptized cause its a surprise.  He knows i have a present for him though.   Other then that I will be staying here in Hopi land for another 6 weeks with Elder Pebbles!  Christmas with the Hopis!  WooHoo!  I'm pretty excited actually.  We taught 88 lessons this last transfer with is like triple from what this area usually gets in 6 weeks so we set a goal for 100.  We are going to be taking Chris out with us to lessons because he wants to be the "translator" for the Hopi people.  Pretty sweet.  Even if we don't get a single lesson the rest of our time here it will be a success because we got to hangout with Chris.  He really wants to meet our parents and things already but at least for me he is going to have to wait about 14 months or so.  I am dong awesome and not quite sure I am ready to be 20 years old yet.  We have a little charlie brown christmas tree and we will take lots of fun pictures during christmas. We have some pretty funny ideas but we will see if they happen.  Thats it for da week!  Go BRONCOS! 

love Elder Christensen

Robert vs. Uprooting Trees

 "It was a cool lookin cop car....I had to....and this is a very common site here in Polacca"

10 Months!

Loloma!!!

Things this week were kinda strange but were good in the end.  There 3 basket dances going on at the same time on Friday and Saturday so the whole place was empty and up on the mesas.  We didn't go because it is a big drunk attraction and people get in fights all the time.  We went and chopped wood all day friday and saturday pretty much.  After a few weeks of chopping down tress and whatnot you get the hang of just knowing when you can bend down and grab the tree around the trunk and lift.  Then the tree just pops out of the ground then you just chuck aside this 15 foot tree, it makes you feel like your strong but really the roots aren't down that deep because there is really nowhere for the roots to go so it isn't that big of a feat in the end.  Kinda finding my inner redneck and Indian out here its great.  I love being from Idaho and being in a place where it feels like I am in the middle of Gowen field, now i just need a .22 and my shotgun and I'm good to go.  I have learned about after a long week...Sunday is my favorite day.  Sunday for a missionary is kinda like the judgment day for the week to see how well you did and how many people came to church.  Yesterday was our fast Sunday because we had stake conference last week.  It was really good!  Chris came again and really liked it.  he actually asked to move his date to Friday the 15th so thats when it its going down!!!!!!  Friday at 5pm, if you wanna come be there. just kidding don't come, you can come in spirit but thats it.  Chris is ready.  We had a good lesson with him last night again.  We asked him if he believed that Joseph Smith truly was a prophet and he said "yes I do." My whole body shook when he said that, he is one of the most spiritual people I've ever met.  He told us he considers us his brothers and part of his family and he thanks us and God every time we come over.  I don't care if i never teach a single lesson the rest of my mission, as long as Chris is baptized and continues to live the way he knows he should.  We talked about the Ten Commandments as well and he related them to why Native Americans, especially Hopi people are afraid to follow the "Bahana" religion or white man.  He said that he would be the "translator" for the hopi and explain to them that this is the original beliefs and things.  I guess you could say that I am happy.  Pretty amazing stuff.  I know this is a short letter.  I don't have much to say.  It's kinda hard to stay motivated out here because of the culture.  During December they are not allowed to go outside really, do anything that causes blunt force trauma to the earth, do anything with the ground according to farm work or ground breaking, no singing, no loud laughter, no drums.....ya pretty dead.  So December may be a very difficult month here. But its ok cause guys like Chris will keep us entertained and busy teaching.  Its all good in the hood! Thanks for everything.

Love Elder Christensen

Robert vs. Montezuma's Revenge

"da Hopi boys...mafia style"

Loloma!!!

Things in Polacca kinda slowed down this week due to Halloween and more cultural dances called "basket dances."  They are kinda like the women's initiation coming of age thing.  Pretty cool, but still really annoying because they have been happening every weekend for the past few weeks.  Every village does one and there are 3 mesas with 2 or more mesas on each.  All week people are making crafts and things to throw out to the crowd.  We may or may not go to the one at 1st mesa this weekend since it is like 5 mins away from us.  Just to get some cool Hopi stuff, its nice since I am taller then about 80% of people here as well so I will have a better advantage mwhahah.  But yeah during the winter they do a lot more ceremonies and things so we might be forced to slow down a bit.  We both got pretty sick on Halloween.  I will try to explain the funny story without being grotesque for those of the sensitive stomach and mind.  We both had some "tummy problems" pretty bad and we couldn't stop it.  Every 30 mins or so we would have to go back to the trailer or church all day to use the restroom.  That night....oh boy.  We pulled in after a lesson and I said dibs on trailer!!!  I ran in there as past as possible and he went to the church right next to the trailer.  After I came out I went to go check on him and then I needed to go again really really bad so I ran into the women's bathroom because there is only 1 john in each bathroom.  We were both yelling at each other to check on each other to see if the other was alive still.  Then......the power went out.  It was pitch black and we were both helpless on our separate thrones.  The lights are sensor lights to so its not like you could just walk over and flip on the switch!  So we just had to sit there and then when we heard the power go on we somebody had to get up and walk in front of the sensor.  So i waddled over there and saved the day.  I am sorry if that was a little to much information....I'm still 19....for one more month so let me be 19 haha.

Our main man Chris Lowe who will be baptized on Nov 16th came to stake conference with us yesterday and really liked it.  He is solid and I am learning so much more from him then what we teach him.  He has completely changed his life around.  We had some more awesome lessons by the campfire about dreams and animals and whatnot.  I really am becoming an Indian.  I love it.  My respect for nature and stuff has grown a lot.  The winter weather has picked up here for sure also.  I opened the truck door one night and jumped out, then got the door got blown into me and smacked me pretty hard.  Reminds me of home!  Ive been reading a lot still in the Old testament, that is some cool stuff in there.  Its nice to be able to see where a lot of the commandments we have now came from and all the jazz.  There is an Elder Lords that finished 3 week ago and he was in Polacca for a bit and he is on his tour of the mission with his parents and they are coming to Polacca today so we will take them up to the Mesa and show them around.  He was one of my favorite guys to serve with. He was my zone leader in Farmington and I have a lot of respect for him.  He is going to try and walk on to Utah as a pitcher I think.  He's pretty good, so I'm kinda jealous.
Well I certainly don't know what else to talk about....we had a lesson on top of Walpi...that really old village that was pretty sweet.  Basically were sitting on the edge of a cliff.  I think thats all she wrote for this week folks!  HOORAH! GO BRONCOS!

Love, Elder Christensen